A Winter Haven woman is behind bars after she pawned jewelry from an elderly resident who trusted her to assist with small jobs around her home.
On Nov. 9, 2024, the victim contacted the Winter Haven Police Department to report that she had a large amount of her jewelry missing. She advised the jewelry had been taken from a storage area in the living room of her residence.
Investigators interviewed the victim and she stated that back in October, she had hired an individual to assist with cutting down a tree that had been recently damaged, due to a hurricane. She stated that when the man arrived, he had his girlfriend, 35 year-old Kalan Davis with him. The couple came to the residence on four occasions: Oct. 16, Oct. 23, Oct. 28 and Nov. 8, 2024.
While the tree work was being conducted, Davis would make her way into the home to do odd jobs for the victim and was paid. The victim stated that Davis was very nice, but seemed to be overly nice making statements like, “I love you” and such. The victim recalled on incident where she had been franticly looking for a jewelry box that had been temporarily placed on her bed. The victim stated Davis left to go outside for a short time and when she returned, she happened to locate the box under the bed (where the victim had looked numerous times.)
The victim thought this occurrence was very odd. After the couple left the residence, the victim noticed that some of her jewelry was gone. The estimated amount was $10,000. She confronted Davis who denied taking the jewelry stating that she would never do that because she “loves her”.
Investigators started a search and located numerous pieces of jewelry at pawn shops in unincorporated Winter Haven, Lakeland and Auburndale that were verified as the victim’s. The total amount recovered was $5,516 that was paid to Davis for the pawned items.
A warrant for the arrest of Davis was obtained and on Dec. 7, 2024, Davis was located and arrested. She was booked into the Polk County Jail for Grand Theft $5000 less than $10000. She remains in the Polk County Jail with a $25,000 bond. Additional charges could be filed due to Davis pawning the stolen items in other jurisdictions.
“I applaud our victim and her keen recall of the occurrences leading us to make this arrest,” said Police Chief Vance Monroe. “Preying on the elderly is as about as low as you can go, but Davis found out our victim was smarter than she was.”
